Diversityand prevalence of seabirdparasites in intertidalzones r) of thesouthern Barents Sea coast KirillGalaktionov JanOve Bustnes TheJoint Norwegian - Russian Commission on EnvironmentalCooperation TheSeabird Expert Group ReportNo. 5: 1994/96 • NINA.NIKU Foundationfor Nature Research and Cultural Heritage Research NORWEGIAN - RUSSIAN ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION THE SEABIRD EXPERT GROUP The Agreement on Environmental Cooperation between Norway and USSR was signed in 1988 and later renegotia- ted between Norway and Russia in 1992. The Commission - the Joint Norwegian-Russian Commission on Environmental Cooperation - is chaired by the Ministry of Environment of the two parties and has annual meetings. Working groups on different topics have been established in order to contribute to increased collaboration on environ- mental problems in general, and to .carry out programmes and projects on different fields (i.e. air pollution, the marine environment, radioactive pollution). The seabird expert group is part of the working group for the marine environ- ment. The initial aim of the seabird expert group was to establish contact and collaboration between Norwegian and Russian research and management institutions. The expert group aims at contributing to the harmonisation and development of scientific methodology and data bases. Furthermore, mapping of important seabird colonies and. the conditions related to seabird habitats, i.e. environmental pollutants and food resources, are important items for the group. Several projects on joint approaches have been initiated within the -expert group during the last years. Annual meetings in the seabird expert group have been arranged since 1989. The delegations from the two countri- es involve seabird experts from,several institutions. On the Norwegian side, the Directorate for Nature Management has the coordinating role- in the collaboration and chair the delegations. On the Russian.side, VNI1 Priroda plays the cor- responding role. The expert 'group is chaired by: Alxander Golovkin - VNII Priroda, Moscow Morten Ekker - Directorate for Nature Management, Trondheim Inguiries regarding the seabird collaboration may be directed to: Directorate for Nature Management Turigasletta 2 N-7005 Trondheim Phone: + (47) 73 58 05 00 Institute of Nature Conservation and Reserves Znamenskoye - Sadki Moscow, 113 628 Phone: + (7) 095 423 21 44 Diversityand prevalence of seabirdparasites in intertidalzones of thesouthern Barents Sea coast KirillGalaktionov JanOve Bustnes TheJoint Norwegian - Russian Commission on EnvironmentalCooperation TheSeabird Expert Group ReportNo. 5: 1994/96 • Foundationfor Nature Research and Cultural Heritage Research nina•niku project report 004 Galaktionov, K. & Bustnes, J. 0. 1996. Diversity and prevalence Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) and of seabird parasites in intertidal zones of the southern Barents Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research Seacoast. - NINAsNIKUProject Report 04: 1-27. (NIKU) issue the following publication in English: Tromsø,June 1996 NINA-NIKU Project Report This series presents the results of both institutesprojects ISSN0807-3082 when the resultsare to be made available in English.The seri- ISBN82-426-0687-0 es may include reports on original research,literature reviews, analysis of particular problems or subjects, etc. The number Management areas: of copies printed will depend on demand. English:Coastal ecology Norwegian: Kystøkologi In addition to this report series published in English, NINA- NIKU publish the following series in Norwegian: Copyright C): NINA Fagrapport (Scientific Report) NINAsNIKUFoundaton for NIKU Fagrapport (Scientifk Report) Nature Reseachand Cultural Heritage Research NINA Oppdragsmelding (Assignment Report) The report can be quoted by referencesto the source. NIKU Oppdragsmelding (Assignment Report) NINA Temahefte (Topic Report) Editor: Jan Ove Bustnes NIKU Temahefte (Topic Report) NINA, Tromsø NINA Faktaark (Fact Sheet) Design and layout: NIKU Faktaark (Fact Sheet) EvaM. Schjetne Kari Sivertsen Aina Berg In addition, NINA's and NIKU's staff publish their researchre- NINA•NIKUsGraphic Office sults in international scientific journals, symposia pro-cee- dings, popular sciencejournals, books, newspapers, and ot- Type: NINA•NIKU her relevant publications. NINA-NIKUalso has a WWW home page: http://www.nina.no Prints:Strindheim Trykkeri AL Stock: 300 Printed on environment paper Addressto contact: NINA•NIKU Tungasletta 2 N-7005 Trondheim Tel: +47 73 58 05 00 Fax+47 73 91 54 33 Availability: Open Assignment sponsor: The Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management Project no.: 18310 The RoaldAmundsen Center in Tromsø Signature of personal responsible: The Norwegian ResearchCouncil 2 © Norwegian institute for nature research (NINA) 2010 http://www.nina.no Please contact NINA, NO-7485 TRONDHEIM, NORWAY for reproduction of tables, figures and other illustrations in this report. nina•niku project report 004 Abstract Galaktionov, K. & Bustnes, J. 0. 1996. Diversity and prevalence of this are probably that the climate in the east is harsher, thus of seabird parasites in intertidal zones of the southern Barents reducing the probability of successful transmission of tremato- Sea coast. - NINA•NIKU Project report 04: 1-27. des with complicated life-cycles, and the distribution of final hosts. The only exception from this was the autonomic In the Barents Sea region there is little knowledge about seabird Microphallus piriformes, which has gulls as main final hosts. parasites, especially at the Norwegian side, and the aim of this Overall, the trematodes of the common eider was more com- project was to map the distribution of such parasites in this mon in the eastern regions, while gull trematodes became area. In addition, we investigated how factors such as longitu- increasingly important in the western regions. The reason for de, exposure and human activities influenced the species com- this is probably that the large number of fishery villages along position and the distribution of the different parasite species. To the Norwegian coast leads to a clumped distribution of gulls, avoid killing seabirds we investigated the intermediate hosts of which again leads to high prevalence of gull trematodes. Along the parasites, such as gastropods and gammarids. The dominant the Norwegian coast we investigated the prevalence of tremato- part of the seabird parasite fauna in this area are the tremato- des around fishery villages and fish farms, and found higher des. Different species of trematodes have life-cycles of varying prevalence of gull trematodes close to human settlements than complexity, that may consist of one intermediate host and no at natural sites. Fishery activities therefore lead to a higher level free-living larval stages (autonomic life-cycles), two intermediate of parasite infection in the environment. We also collected the hosts and one free-living stage, and two intermediate hosts and amphipod Gammarus oceanicus at 38 stations along the two free-living larval stages. Different speices also have different Norwegian Barents Sea coast, and found totally five species of final hosts, such as gulls and common eiders. We collected parasites, two of which have seabirds as final hosts. These two three species of periwinkles (Littorina saxatilis, L. obtusata, L. lit- were the cestode Microsomacanthus microsoma (fam. torea), and Nucella lapillus in the area from Novaya Zemlya to Hymenolepididae), and the acantocephalan Polymorphus phipp- Tromsø, totally 37 575 snails from 180 different sampling stati- si (fam. Polymorphidae). However, they were only found at a ons. The material was collected between 1978 and 1994. We very low density. The fauna of seabird parasites which use divided the area into 5 different regions (figure 6), and compa- Gammarus oceanicus as intermediate hosts seems to be rather red the fauna among these regions. We found 14 species of tre- uniform in the Barents Sea region. matodes in the gastropods, of which 13 have marine birds as final hosts. In periwinkles the number of species per sampling station increased westwards (except for L. obtustata). The fre- Kirill Galaktionov, Murmansk Marine Biological Institute, 17 quency of trematodes with more than one intermediate host Vladimirskaya Str. 183002 Murmansk, Russia. increased westwards, that is they became more important in the species composition. The trend for the prevalence showed the Jan Ove Bustnes, Foundation for Nature Research and Cultural same pattern, and more snails were infected by trematodes Heritage Research, Department of Arctic Ecology, Storgata 25, with complicated life-cycles in the western regions. The causes N-9005 Tromsø, Norway 3 © Norwegian institute for nature research (NINA) 2010 http://www.nina.no Please contact NINA, NO-7485 TRONDHEIM, NORWAY for reproduction of tables, figures and other illustrations in this report. nina•niku project report 004 Referat Galaktionov, K. & Bustnes, J. 0. 1996. Artsammensetning og antall arter per lokalitet økte i vestlig retning (untatt for butt prevalens av sjøfuglparasitter i fjæresoner langs den sørlig strandsnegl). Frekvensen av ikter med mer enn en mellomvert Barentshavkysten. - NINAsNIKU Project report 04: 1-27. økte også i vestlig retning, noe som betyr at disse artene ble vik- tigere i artssammensetningen. Trenden for hvor stor prosent av sneglene som var infisert (prevalensen) viste det samme mønste- Et sentralt problem innen studier av parasitter i fugl er at det ret, og flere var